In the Shadows
by pyro18
Summary: Nikki Riddle aka Illusion never really fit in with anyone, and with powers that can make others see things that aren't really there will she ever be able to consider any of Xavier's students her friend, including her new roommate Tabitha Smith?
1. Intro

A high pitched scream pierced through the night, ringing throughout the Riddle household. It was two in the morning and nine-year-old Nicole Riddle's screams ceased as Mr. and Mrs. Riddle rushed in.

"What? What is it?" Mrs. Riddle asked frantically.

"What's the matter?" Mr. Riddle asked, still half asleep.

"It's over there," Nicole hissed with tears streaming down her frightened face, pointing to the corner of her room. Mr. Riddle walked over to where she had pointed.

"There's nothing there," Nicole's father said, having thoroughly inspected the spot next to her closet under the window. The moon was casting patches of lights onto the floor, lighting up the spot, as if it was trying to show that Mr. Riddle was right. He pulled the curtains shut, and turned to his daughter.

"It must have been a nightmare," Mrs. Riddle concluded, sitting on the bed dedghtmare,"ddle was right. He pulled the curtains shutpatting Nicole's back.

"What a relief," Mr. Riddle sighed, sitting on the other side of his daughter.

"But it was standing right there…it's eyes…" Nicole whispered, her eyes wide, staring off into the darkness of the room.

"Ohh, honey…" Mrs. Riddle began to dry the tears off of Nicole's face, "Oh my God…" she said, suddenly pulling her daughter's face sharply towards her, her own eyes growing wide.

"What?" Mr. Riddle asked.

"Her eyes! Look at them!" Mrs. Riddle replied, her voice rising as she turned Nicole's confused face to Mr. Riddle.

"What the hell?" he practically yelled as he examined his daughter's eyes which were completely scarlet. He could faintly make out the faint lines of where the irises met the whites of her eyes, but other than that it was hard to tell that those eyes belonged to a nine-year-old girl rather than a demon from hell. Now it was Mrs. Riddle's turn to scream. She shrieked pulling away from her bewildered daughter as if she was an animal that almost bit her. Four-year-old Tommy Riddle sleepily toddled into the room, rubbing his eyes.

"What wrong mommy?" he asked, pulling on his mother's hand who was bracing herself against the wall, her mouth gaping and her stare transfixed on Nicole.

"Get him out of here," Mr. Riddle demanded, snapping her out of it. He was fully awake now, and ready to take charge of the situation. Mrs. Riddle quickly snatched up Tommy and ran out of the room.

"Mommy!" Nicole called, the red slowly flushing out of her eyes as they returned to normal. Her mother, however, continued to run down the hallway until they heard the door of her bedroom slam shut. Mr. Riddle kneeled down at the bedside, grabbing Nicole gently by the shoulders and turning her to face him.

"What is the matter with you!"

"I, I don't know," Nicole replied. Her bottom lip quavered slightly, but she bit back hard knowing that she couldn't hold her sobs in for much longer. Her father wasn't someone she wanted to cry in front of.

"Well you better figure it out," he snapped, "Now what exactly did you see?" Nicole choked back her tears and with a voice that grew stronger with every word she began to explain to her father whose face paled. The dim light in the room made his face appear gaunt.

"It can't be…" he mumbled, his gaze shifting from the shadows the window cast to Nicole. When she finished Mr. Riddle looked as if he had actually seen…

"No! You're lying!" he yelled. Nicole was shocked by her father's reaction.

"But it was…"

"Shut up!" Mr. Riddle interrupted, "It can't be true! You must have been seeing things!" Nicole's temper flared at her father's words and her eyes flushed crimson as she stared furiously at the shadows on the floor. Suddenly, the shadows began to change, jittering around like they were alive, and they stirred together as if ingredients in a pot rather than shadows cast on the floor. Mr. Riddle heard a hissing sound and stared on in complete horror while the shadows mingled together until they were up off the floor. A huge, rippling, black mass that stayed rooted to the ground as it grew taller and taller until it transformed into a hideous, gnarled, almost human-like figure that towered at least a foot taller than Mr. Riddle. He gasped as a face formed on the gangly creature, a face as black and transparent as the shadows although it appeared solid. The haunting face was hardly human, the only thing on it was a pair of eyes. Red eyes. As the shadow turned to Mr. Riddle, a mouth appeared on the twisted face. The mouth opened and a bone chilling laugh poured from it. Nicole knew this was coming and wasn't frightened at all. In fact, she was laughing too, a laugh that matched the shadow demon's exactly, even though she was on the opposite side of the room. Mr. Riddle's body hit the floor with a loud thump when he fainted.


	2. The Meeting

**8 YEARS LATER**

"A new student? Are you sure that's wise Charles? There are already so many," Storm pointed out.

"Nonsense Ororo, there is plenty of room her in the mansion," Professor Charles Xavier replied, pulling the Cerebro headset off of his head.

"I still don't know about this…" Storm sighed, thinking of how another student would add to the stress of managing the New Recruits and the X-Men.

"Don't fret Ororo, everything will work out for the better," Xavier said wheeling out of the room.

"Sometimes I think your heart is just too big Professor," Storm mumbled following him.

"Let me get this straight. The kid becomes uncontrollable so they get rid of her because their afraid she's scaring their son?" Logan asked the orphanage caretaker.

"Well if that's how you want to put it, yes…"

"What kind of people we talkin' about here?" Logan interrupted. Logan and Professor Xavier had only been in the interview with the orphanage caretaker for more than ten minutes and Logan was already giving him a hard time.

"Very confused and frightened people, Logan," Professor Xavier answered. The caretaker looked relieved, it was pointless to answer any of Logan's questions without being interrupted with a harder question, or Logan answering his own questions. He barely got to say anything in his defense and felt like the conversation was going nowhere, but decided against getting on this stranger's bad side. This was just Logan's way of handling things he didn't want to do.

"That's hardly an excuse, if you don't mind me sayin' Chuck," Logan said, drawing the caretaker's attention back to the pointless conversation.

"Why don't you wait outside Logan, you're making this quite difficult," Xavier snapped.

"Why didn't you just bring Ororo then?" Logan muttered, stomping out of the room. Logan was very pleased with himself. He hated doing anything sitting down for long periods of time, and Logan considered himself a man of action. Talking was more of the Professor's thing. He shut the door behind him and decided to take a stroll down the corridor to pass the time. It was around 5:00 PM, but the curtains of the windows were shut and the hallway was dimly lit, so it seemed much later. On the opposite side of the windows there were the doors of the orphans' rooms. Suddenly, Logan heard a scream and one of the doors opened and two kids dashed out, smacking right into him.

"Ooof! Sorry mister!" said a little girl who looked about six. She had stringy blond hair and one of her front teeth was missing.

"Uhh, that's ok," Logan answered, not sure how to react. The other kid looked like he was about three-years-old. He didn't say anything, but just looked at Logan worriedly with large brown eyes.

"Megan! Brian! It was just a story! I…" a girl called coming out of the room the other two had just fled. She stopped short when she saw Logan. This girl was in her teens, a lot older than the other two.

She regarded him with steely black eyes, and her eyebrows were arched in suspicion as she asked, "Who are you and what do you want?"

A grin tugged at the corner of Logan's lips, "I'm Logan, and you must be Nicole."

s


	3. Awkward Moments

"Okay, so what you guys are saying is you want me to go to your home for freaks?" Nicole asked. They were back in the caretaker's office, and Xavier had just explained to her about mutants, the X-Men, and how he had detected her using Cerebro.

"Nicole I understand your apprehensions and I know this may be asking a lot you right now, but all of our students are doing quite well, and all we want to do is help," Professor Xavier answered. Nicole huffed angrily at this.

"He's right kid. Anyway, it's not like you're better off here on your own," Logan added, who had suddenly become a lot more helpful.

"Fine, whatever," Nicole answered reluctantly knowing that these two strangers were right.

"If that's your answer then you might as well stay here. If the fate of the world falls onto your shoulders and all you can say is whatever, then we would be better off without you," Xavier said.

"Plus it's not like you're the only mutant out there right now, so we're kinda helpin' ya outta the goodness of our hearts if you know what I'm sayin'," Logan growled, getting agitated.

"Ok! Ok! I really want to go."

"Good, I'm glad you see it our way, and I'm sure you will be quite happy with us. Now, let me settle a few things while you gather your belongings, and we'll be off," Xavier wheeled out of the office to go sign papers for the caretaker.

Logan and Nicole stood for about a minute of awkward silence until Nicole said, "I guess I'll get my stuff," and walked out of the room.

'I hate teenagers,' Logan thought to himself before he too, exited the room.

Nicole sighed as she gathered her belongings together in the room she shared with Brian and Megan. She had only been at the orphanage for about a week, but already felt like she was part of a family again.

'This family was meant to be broken anyway,' she thought bitterly. She was only there until a suitable foster home was found for her, since, technically, she wasn't an orphan. Nicole was able to fit all of her belongings into a duffel bag, so it didn't take her very long to pack. When she finished she glanced in the mirror by her bed at her reflection. Her raven black hair fell messily past her shoulders, and she eyed each of her facial features critically, form her strong jaw, her pursed lips, her narrow, long nose, until she stopped short, her eyes locked with her mirror image self. Those eyes are what started her problems in the first place. Her parents had never been so understanding or thoughtful when it came to her powers, and that last accident was the last straw. Nicole grimaced, breaking eye contact with herself, and remembering how angry they had been, how they blamed her for not being able to fix the way she was. The knock at the door sucked Nicole out of her thoughts.

"Time to go kid," Logan said, poking his head in the doorway. The Professor was probably her best bet at figuring out how to control her powers, and giving her the answers she so desperately needed, which was the reason she was going with them.

"I'm ready," Nicole answered, slinging her duffel bag over her shoulder and following Logan.


	4. A New Home

I know this took a while to put up, but you know how writer's block is...anyway I hope you enjoy it, and if it isn't too much trouble I really appreciate reviews.

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As the black sedan pulled in through the gates of the Institute, Nicole's jaw dropped. The Professor had referred to her new home as a 'mansion', but this was incredible. The large Tudor style house was complete with a fountain, private balconies for the second story rooms, and it even had ivy climbing the walls.

"I do hope this suits you," Professor Xavier said with a kind smile, noticing Nicole's shocked expression.

"Yeah…" she mumbled, unable to speak in full sentences.

"Ah, here is the welcoming committee," Xavier said, referring to the two older teens that were approaching the car. Logan got out and went to get Xavier's wheelchair out of the trunk. Nicole's gaze turned to the two students which sent her into a deeper shock. They were perfect. The boy was tall with short brown hair and deep red sunglasses. Even though he wasn't her type, he was a good looking boy, and Nicole was sure that the popular girls from her other school would have deemed him cute. The girl was almost as tall as the boy, and she fit the part of a red haired Barbie completely from her flawlessly painted fingernails to her Abercrombie and Fitch wardrobe. They smiled at her which struck Nicole as funny, people like them usually never stooped down to her level. When the Professor had said that all students were mutants, they were not what she had in mind at all.

"Hello Nicole, I'm Jean and this is Scott. Welcome to the team," the girl said reaching out to shake Nicole's hand. Nicole pulled herself together and gave her a strong handshake. Scott smiled at Nicole, while he placed a hand on Jean's shoulder, his way of showing her that they were a couple.

"Well, let's show you around then, shall we?" Xavier asked wheeling in the direction of the mansion. Nicole pulled her duffel bag out of the backseat, and slung it over her shoulder, before following Logan, Xavier, Scott, and Jean to the house.

The long tour ended, leaving Nicole as breathless as she was when she had first arrived; from the Danger Room to the extended dining room the mansion was as overwhelming on the inside as it was on the outside. Jean and Scott had left Nicole to find her room on her own; she would be rooming with a girl named Tabitha. When Scott had told her this he had wished her good luck, so Nicole had no idea what do expect from this girl. Nicole stood in front of the door to her room at the end of the hallway. Loud music was blaring from inside and there were scorch marks on the door from what Nicole guessed was some kind of explosives. Deciding that knocking wouldn't do any good she opened to door and walked inside. Tabitha was sprawled out across her bed with a crazy smile and she was twirling a small needle in between her fingers. Noticing Nicole she sat up and gave her a big smile.

"Oh heyyy, they told me about you. Nicole, right? I'm Tabitha," she said turning of the music.

"Yeah, call me Nikki," Nicole said sitting her duffel bag down on the other bed in the room, and sitting down. All the excitement had taken a lot out of her.

"Well, Nikki, what is it you do?" Tabitha asked starting to play with the needle again.

"What?"

"You know…the freakish mutant powers that got you in this place."

"Oh…it's kind of hard to explain, but sometimes I can control shadows." Nicole said before realizing how stupid that sounded.

"Fascinating…" Tabitha drawled, rolling her eyes.

"Well what do you do?" Nicole asked.

"I was hoping you'd be able to do something exciting. I can make these awesome little bombs that I can throw at whoever, whenever I want," she said. When she talked about her powers her eyes gleamed with excitement, it was almost like she was a bomb herself, and her powers fit her explosive personality perfectly. From her fanned out blonde hair to the multiple piercings in her ears and the way she dressed it seemed like being able to throw bombs was a normal habit in the life of Tabitha Smith. Just to prove she wasn't lying, Tabitha held out her and, and a small yellow ball of light formed in it.

Before Nicole could say anything, Tabitha yelled, "Bombs away!" as she chucked the ball at their door where it exploded on impact, scorching the wood. Tabitha grinned and Nicole had the feeling that rooming with Tabitha would be anything but boring.

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End file.
